Page 124 of Reckless
“Oh, am I, Little Psychic?”
She looks unamused until she says, “Let’s just say I’ve gotten rather good at reading your body language.”
I chuckle at my own words spit back at me. “That is how you did your little Psychic trick, isn’t it? You read people.”
She nods. “That’s the gist. It sounds a lot easier than it is, if I’m being honest. It takes years to hardwire your brain to string details together in a matter of seconds.”
“I believe it,” I sigh. “You were—still are, I suppose—very convincing.”
I feel her gaze on my face. “So, you never… questioned my ability?”
I laugh lightly. “Of course, I did. That’s kind of my job.” Shaking my head, I glance up at the blue sky above. “But you weredistracting. It’s as though the moment I considered your ability, you’d do something to turn my thoughts in the other direction. And I am still discovering new powers, especially when it comes to the Mundanes. So, a Psychic didn’t seem too far-fetched.”
Her smile is smug. “I am very good at what I do.”
“Don’t go getting cocky, darling.”
She turns to look fully at me, her expression blank. “You have a blister on the inside of your left foot.” Her eyes fall to the growing scruff on my jaw. “You don’t keep a beard because you hate the way it feels. And… you wore a ring back at the castle, but you took it off before you came to find me.”
I shake my head at the ground, trying my best to hide my astonishment. “You got me, Gray. That all sounds about right.” I flex my hand like I have been ever since leaving the castle. “It was the Enforcer’s ring I was wearing. Big, gaudy thing I’m not used to. The feel of it between my fingers bothered me. So I figured a mission was a good excuse to take it off.”
I glance over to find her staring at the ring she spins on her thumb. She scoffs at the sight of it. “My whole life I thought this ring represented the marriage of myparents, not strangers.”
“They were your parents,” I say sternly. “Blood doesn’t equal love. Jax is just as much my brother as Kitt is, despite us not sharing the same parents.”
She nods, understanding but not fully believing. “It makes sense. All of it.” She manages a weak laugh. “I’m the daughter of some Ordinaries who didn’t want to deal with me. That’s why I’m not a Mix. I guess… I guess I just never thought about it until now.”
“Why would you?” I say simply. “When a father loves you, you don’t feel the need to go looking for another one.”
She nods, falling silent. The sun hangs above us, hot against the back of my neck. I say nothing about my aching shoulder or the burning blister she’s already aware of that rubs against my boot.
We walk in an easy silence for a long stretch of the remaining road. The last of our stale bread is quickly devoured and washed down with warm water.
That’s when the ground begins to even out, tufts of grass appearing all around us. Shielding my eyes, I squint against the falling sun, spotting the flood of green we are heading for.
“We’re almost to the field,” I say, shattering the silence. I can already see the castle’s towers looming over the horizon.
“Great. Last stop before Ilya.”
There’s that tone again.
I clear my throat. “Have you ever been to the field?”
“Considering that it’s near the castle—and I hadn’t been anywhere close to there until the Trials—no, I’ve never seen the field.”
“Good.” I throw her a smile. “I’ll be the first to see your reaction.”
Her mouth is hanging open, just as I suspected.
“What… what is that?” she gawks, feet falling faster against the dirt.
“That would be the field.”
A hand smacks me in the stomach. “I know that, smart-ass.” She smiles sweetly as though she hadn’t just knocked the air from my lungs. “I’m talking about the flowers.”
I straighten, hand pressed against my stomach as I stare at the sea of bright red. Every petal bleeds into the other, creating a blanket of color to warm the grass beneath.
“Poppies,” I say, smiling when I see the look on her face.
